Udall Amendment SJR19 is Seriously Flawed

SJR19 is a weak half measure! We need to abolish corporate constitutional rights.This is an historic opportunity to repair our Constitution and we will only have one chance to get it right. The Constitution originally established the hierarchy: We the People –> Government –> Corporations. What we have now is Corporations –> Government –> We the People. It’s no wonder everyone hates the government and thinks the country is on the wrong track. We have nothing against corporations, but with the help of the Supreme Court, the financial elites and the huge transnational corporations have taken control of our country. Not only do they control the purse strings for most of our politicians, they are using their rights as “people” to:

Refuse disclosure of what’s in their products.

Freely advertise harmful products.

Pollute our air and water while avoiding government inspections.

Force chain stores into locations where communities don’t want them.

Avoid subpoenas for price fixing or unlawful trade.

Refuse birth-control to employees, based on the company’s religious rights.

Corporations are supposed to have privileges, not human rights. The legal framework for this still exists, so abolishing corporate constitutional rights would not be a difficult transition. For more background on these topics, please read:

SJR19 makes a weak attempt to address the campaign finance aspects of today’s problems, but we need to put our Constitution back to what our Founder’s intended. Fortunately, on June 18th, another step in the right direction was taken by a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Here is the improved language. But it still falls short of what is needed. Move To Amend cannot support an amendment that doesn’t end corporate constitutional rights and makes explicit that money is not speech. This proposed language permits regulation of these issues but doesn’t require it.

We would like to see the Senate adopt more definitive language, like that found in the Move To Amend “We the People” amendment, HJR29, which was introduced last year in the House by Mark Pocan and Rick Nolan. In addition, we would like the Senate to introduce our HJR29 amendment into the next session of Congress.